Chapter 30 - Final Struggle

Despite having had almost two weeks for the sake of preparation, Leo’s preparation couldn’t be said to be completely perfect.

Having had to spend most of the time he had left after training, processing poison, or planning for the mechanical traps, it could be said that Leo spent the largest portion of his time preparing his ‘field’.

Since he had decided on using extreme lethality to deal with the lethality of a sword breath user, Leo naturally didn’t forget to perfect his ‘weapon’ as much as he could.

However, being tight on time after finishing the preparation for his ‘weapon’, the tactics that he came up with when it came to using this ‘weapon’ were still rather limited. That was just how hard it was to deal with a sword breath user.

‘Now!’

After running out of cards in the process of disposing of close to a dozen men, Leo was left with no choice but to rely on innovation. The ‘hit and run’ tactic he applied was something he had come up with on the spot.

Regardless of how creative someone could be, coming with a solution to a hypothetical situation was always harder than coming up with a solution after experiencing the situation for real. That was precisely why simulation was a necessary process in the modern world.

Being on the brink of life and death was naturally a great factor to give the final ‘push’ to ideas!

Having come up with the ‘cornerstone’ of the plan, all that Leo needed to do was build around it. Relying on the intimidation effect of his ‘poison slash’, he was able to break the focus of one of the two men, using his speedy steps to deceive the man about the specific safe spot to step on.

Click.

“Gyaak!”

Almost throwing away all caution and risking being affected by the trap, Leo didn’t completely retreat after the trap was triggered. Immediately making use of the confusion the triggering had caused the other man to truly stab him this time!

While the man was skilled enough to at least block Leo’s stab, most of his attention was on his colleague, trying to understand the situation and avoid getting affected by the trap, not to mention having lost his focus under Leo’s latest tactic. Ultimately, he ended up being stabbed in the lungs, becoming Leo’s first direct kill...

“Gyakk!”

‘It worked!’

Leo didn’t even bother retrieving the sword that was protruding from the man’s chest as he quickly retreated. His heartbeat dramatically increased having survived the immediate dilemma.

‘This...’

Finally coming back to his senses from the momentary trance, Leo looked down to see a part of the leather covering his stomach had been torn. It seemed like a needle of the ‘honeycomb’ that had just activated had gone his way.

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‘Phew.’

Fortunately, the needle didn’t reach his skin, having only torn the leather and covered it with ‘color’. Seeing this, Leo didn’t panic as he walked back to the two men that had already become corpses, tearing a clean part of their clothes to wipe the poison away.

Expecting something similar to happen, Leo had specifically chosen the ‘honeycomb’ that spat out needles due to the low damage stray needles did. Since he was risking taking damage from his own trap, he picked the one that had the lowest ‘area of effect’ damage.

Wishsh!

Drawing out the sword that was stuck in the man’s chest, Leo finally looked back towards the scar-faced man that motionlessly watched what had just happened.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

“Useless trash, they still died after all. I should have expected that someone associated with that brat wouldn’t be normal. Seeing that you managed to kill the whole team without having a hundredth of his strength, I believe you are even better than him.”

Breaking his silence, the scar-faced leader who no longer had a team to lead walked slowly towards the ‘field’ as he clapped his hands in admiration.

‘He is dangerous.’

Staring at the scar-faced man as he grew closer, Leo felt slightly shaken. Unlike the ones he managed to kill, this man had completely overcome the confusion and fear that he had instilled at the very beginning. He appeared to be very nonchalant about the whole situation.

“Well, I did help you take care of one, but let’s not get into details. To be honest, it feels like a pity to just capture you now. What do you say about becoming my underling?”

The scar-faced man had yet to step into the field, throwing a look to the head he had sent rolling before smiling at Leo.

“Still no? Do you have to heartlessly refuse all of my offers like this? Well, I guess I will have to beat some sense into you first.”

‘Was he hiding it?’

Leo’s mind was thrown into confusion, the scar-faced man had strangely transitioned from a man with fiery temper into a ‘snowman’. At this point, Leo even doubted his earlier thoughts about being the trigger to such a strong mentality change.

“Here I come.”

The scar-faced man voiced out the same words as his subordinates. However, as if he didn’t care, he continued stepping forward without circling around to go through the cleared path.

Retreating in the opposite direction, Leo observed the scar-faced man, a threatening thought forming in his mind.

“I must really say that I’m a big fan of your ‘killing field’. However…”

The scar-faced man smiled at Leo as if he saw through his thoughts, not even bothering to look at the ground as he advanced.

“It’s already useless.”

‘So, that’s why…’

As he walked back while watching the scar-faced man take more steps, Leo completely understood the man’s crazy behavior towards his subordinates.

‘He used them to make a map.’

The scar-faced man hadn’t been merely hiding behind as he watched his men die as Leo thought at first. He was simply making use of his ‘resources’ to ‘decrypt’ the ‘field’ that Leo had painstakingly created.

Thinking back to it, Leo also understood the reasoning behind the men that he threw to clear the path. It was obvious to him now that they were necessary distractions to make him unaware of this development. Having been completely focusing on survival, Leo naturally didn’t have time to care about the little details…

“Well then, shall we dance?”

As the scar-faced man casually walked closer, Leo put his sword back into its sheath so as to re-’color’ it. It seemed like he was forced to engage in a final struggle for the sake of survival.